Improvement in fruit-gatherers



F. TOWNS;

Frut-Gatherers.

N0I 146,151, l Patentedlan.6,187 4.

UNITED STATES PATENT rrIon.

WILLIAM F. TOWNS, OF RAVENNA, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN FRUIT-GATHERERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 146,151, dated January 6, 1874; application filed i November 5, 1873.

Figure 1 represents a view of the fruit-gatherer.

The cloth tube a is used to convey the fruit down from thetree'. It is open at the lower end. At the upper end it is attached to the picker c, so as to forni an opening in the side to receive and pick :the fruit. rThe picker c is made of a single piece of spring-wire, in an elliptical form, both ends of the' wire Vbein g fastened in the end 'of the handle or pole h. The picker is curved outward from the side on which the cloth tube is attached, in the form of an arc of a circle, the upper end being on a line, or nearly so, with the handle.

When the picker is made to inclose an apple or other fruit, it is either drawn down orpushed up, as may be most convenient, tillthe sides of the picker, near its end, take hold of the apple and pull it from the tree. The cloth tube should be lnade large or full at the upper end to allow space for the fruit, so that, when the picker is drawn down, its upper end will take 4hold of and pull off the fruit, which is then conveyed to the ground through the cloth tube.

By reason of the curved forni of the picker, its center, where the opening 1s the wldest, 1s

always in plain sight of the operator, so that he can see when the picker is in the proper position to take hold of the fruit.V The upper end of the picker opening in a diierent direction from the lower end, the operator is enabled to use the picker in diii'ereut and diicult positions of the fruit by severing the fruit with the end of the picker which is best adapted to the position of the fruit.

The picker is made of spring-wire, so that it will readily yield if pressed against the branches of trees, and thereby save the cloth from injury; and in passing it between and among branches which are close to each other its sides will readily compress, and, when the pressure is removed, restore themselves to their proper shape. It may also be made or` common wire, larger than spring-Wire, so as not to spring, if preferred. y

I claim- The fruit-picker c, curved as described, in

combination With the cloth tube a and the handle h, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

WILLIAM F. TOWNS. Vitnesses:

GEO. F. ROBINSON,

BRADFORD HowLANn. 

